Over 500,000 patients are admitted to emergency departments every year for care resulting from burn injury. Nearly half of these injuries occur under the influence of alcohol. Studies have shown that patients intoxicated at the time of injury exhibit significantly higher morbidity and mortality compared to patients who are not intoxicated but sustained similar extent of burn injury. The mechanism by which alcohol enhances post burn pathogenesis remains largely unclear. Our proposed studies delineating the role of gut bacteria in impaired gut barrier function will yield novel insight into the mechanism by which alcohol potentiates post burn pathogenesis and may help in developing better therapeutic strategies for this patient population.